Kingdom Hearts is the longest-running video game series featuring the Disney mascots. The latest title, Kingdom Hearts III is about to debut and audiences cannot wait for it. Copyright Disney / Square Enix. All rights reserved Developed by the Japanese studio Square Enix , the series was originally a Nintendo GameCube exclusive when it appeared in 2002. It had fantastic reviews and tremendous word of mouth. It sold millions of copies, to date over 20 million in the series, and created fans the world...

In a previous blog post , we looked at Marvel Contest of Champions . The mobile fighting game featuring the majority of the Marvel Universe. There also happens to be a DC Universe fighting game out right now as well. Injustice 2 was released May of this year. And is doing quite well on the sales charts. It was the sequel to Injustice: Gods Among Us , a NetherRealm Studios title from 2013. The game features a very dark take on the DC Universe. It is a bit darker than even the recent live-action Warner...

Marvel has had tremendous success in the movie industry but moderate success in the video game arena. With the exception of a few titles, the Marvel gaming library has been lackluster on the home consoles. That is with the exception of one genre. Fighting games lend themselves very well to the various superhero franchises. The Marvel universe has been featured in popular fighting games since at least 1994, when the Japanese publisher Capcom released X-Men: Children of the Atom in the arcade. Capcom...

Game publishers are constantly looking for the next big thing but sometimes it's the little games that turn out to be the blockbusters. Take the game Crossy Road for example. You may have not heard of the mobile game but chances are that someone you know has a copy on their phone. The game was originally published in 2014 by a small studio called Hipster Whale. The game featured a chicken character trying to cross a never-ending road. The game was deceptively simple yet hard to put down. It was...

Thanks to a talented team of artists from California, the UK and Paris, Mickey made some magic at Disneyland Paris this past Saturday. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Katy Harris - the Show director for Creative Entertainment at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Paris - and her team collaborated with Michael Jung - the Vice President of Theatrical Development at Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment - to give European theme park fans a brand-new stage show to enjoy...

Superheroes aren't the feel-good characters they used to be. Copyright Warner Bros. All rights reserved In recent years, many of the superhero films have taken a dark and somber turn. Blame it on the success of the "Dark Knight" trilogy but the truth is rooted in comic book tradition. Long-time comic book fans know that there have been graphic novels featuring characters from both Marvel and DC that have dealt with serious issues for decades. Racism, cancer, addiction, suicide and even...

The Ghostbusters has been a prime piece of pop culture real estate for over 30 years. In the video game landscape there have been a few memorable and many forgettable titles. In 1987 Data East released an arcade version called the Real Ghostbusters, named after the popular animated series. The game was tedious and difficult. It never saw a sequel but that didn't stop audiences from wanting to try another Ghostbusters game. It also did not stop various studios from trying to get another Ghostbusters...

Mickey and the House of Mouse better watch out. Mario is moving into the castle ! Nintendo and Universal plan to have the first Nintendo park ready in a few years. The target date is by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics . It won't really be a self-contained theme park, but rather an expansion to the existing Universal Studios Japan which is located in Osaka. Universal is betting big on this project and plans to invest 400 billion Yen or over $350 million US into its development, which was more than was...

"To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past -- and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America -- with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world." Walt Disney Disneyland Opening Day July 17, 1955 Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved In honor of Disneyland's...

It is not everyday that you get the chance to speak one-on-one with the creative minds behind what you know will be a summer blockbuster at the box office. That is exactly the opportunity that I had recently when I sat down with Disney / Pixar's Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera responsible for some of the best animation to hit the silver screen. Doctor and Rivera were in Philadelphia recently as part of their cross-country press tour talking up " Inside Out ," what they hope will be the...

As the E3 wraps up we find ourselves exhausted yet also enthusiastic about the next year of gaming. There were many great titles announced for all of the major platforms. Several sequels, including the big names like Call of Duty, Assassins Creed and Fallout that will be fighting for game of the year honors. The front-runner seems to be Fallout 4 but the year is still young. Photo by Noe Valladolid Meanwhile over at Disney, rather Disney Interactive. the train is picking up speed. This past week...

For the past few years now, Disneyland Paris hasn't been so lively. At least when it comes to live stage shows. You see, of the three sit-down theatres that this Disney theme park originally opened with back in April of 1992, one -- the Fantasy Festival stage, to be specific -- was transformed into a "Meet Mickey" location three years back that's very similar in concept & layout to the one found at WDW's Magic Kingdom. As for Disneyland Paris' other two locations, Discoveryland's...

The doors to the world's largest Disney Store are open in the popular Lujiazui area of Pudong, Shanghai, China. The landmark store is the largest retail space of any Disney Store in the world rivaling even the large World of Disney stores at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and in Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort in California. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved "We couldn't be more delighted to open our first Disney Store in China, in Shanghai,"...

Disney has owned two Christmases in a row with the Infinity gaming series. Fans of Disney, Pixar and Marvel have enjoyed versions 1.0 and 2.0 on their gaming console of choice. For those that are unfamiliar with the titles they are based on collectible figures which work with a platform that connects to all of the major gaming consoles. The figures are interchangeable and the experience is only limited by the imagination of the player. That is to say that players have access to a "ToyBox"...

Did you know that one of the most popular Disney games on mobile devices is also a free title? Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Disney Tsum Tsum is based on the line of plush toys that bear the same name. The bean-shaped figures have been very popular with audiences since the characters first appeared in the Japanese Disney Parks in 2013. The name Tsum Tsum translates to Stack Stack because the characters are indeed stackable. The figures sold extremely well in Japan and it...

The term "Virtual Reality" has been a buzzword in pop culture for decades but accessible VR technology has always been more science fiction than science fact. Fans of entertainment are finally entering a new era. In 2014 VR technology had actually come of age. Large companies, like Google and Sony, were showing audiences what their R&D groups had been busy working on. One of the first previews of the latest VR technology happened at the Game Developers Conference in March 2014. The...

Lights, Cameras, Bloom! The curtain has gone up on the 2015 Philadelphia Flower Show , with this year's theme "Celebrate the Movies." The glitz and glamor of Hollywood has transformed the Pennsylvania Convention Center into a studio backlot now through March 8th. Acres of gardens pay tribute to films inspired by Disney and Disney-Pixar. Make no mistake about this presentation of flowers, gardens and shrubs, oh my, it is in no way sponsored by The Walt Disney Company but rather only...

How would you like a chance to enjoy a classic travel experience? Not only that, but what if it was one that Walt & Lillian Disney enjoyed on a cross-country excursion? Saturday, August 16th is the date that just such an opportunity awaits. Roger Colton of Private Car Service will be taking a select group of guests on a vintage railroad car excursion from Los Angeles to San Diego that day. The great news is that there are still some seats aboard that you can reserve. Step back to the summer of...

In my career as a radio reporter, I have had the opportunity to interview many fascinating people. In the past 30 years, I have talked with legislators, authors, movie directors, actors and actresses and -- yes -- even Disney Legends. Such was the case in 2009 when I had the chance to speak with Dick Jones . Now you may ask who is Dick Jones. He was a child star who had many roles in those so-called B-Westerns. But perhaps he is best known as the lead voice in a classic Disney animated movie. Dick...

A year after the showcasing of Disney Infinity at E3 in Los Angeles, the parent company returned with a much stronger identity for the franchise. Disney Infinity 2.0 was an improvement in every sense of the word. The original Disney Infinity debuted in stores just before Black Friday 2013. It got the drop on the competition, most notably Activision's Skylander series. Yet Infinity was not without its faults on launch. Players reported random freezes, crashes and other glitches on the Disney online...

EuroDisney S.C.A. (i.e., the financial company behind Disneyland Resort Paris) has a lot at stake with the opening of its brand-new multimillion attraction, "Ratatouille, l'avventure totalement toque de Remy" (which -- for all of you English-speaking Disney fans out -- translates into "Remy's Totally Crazy Adventure"). It's also worth noting here that the word "toque" in French means both "crazy" but also stands for chef's hat, "the toque...

You say that you can't get enough of Anna, Elsa & Olaf ? Or you are wearing out that "Frozen" soundtrack CD on your car as the kids belt out the Academy Award-winning song "Let it Go" from the back seat? Well, that Walt Disney Animation Studios production which has the distinction of being the top grossing animated feature of all time will soon be skating into an arena in your hometown. " Frozen ," the blockbuster Disney movie about two royal sisters will soon...

When it comes to Disney and gaming, we here at JHM take the subjects seriously. Where entertainment and good business cross paths chances are that Disney will be at the forefront. "Iron Man 3," released by Marvel and Disney was one of the biggest films of 2013. It made $372 million in its first weekend including domestic and international ticket sales . Compare that to the weekend that Grand Theft Auto V had when it debuted. In just three days, Take-Two Interactive's crime action game...

The Disney films are synonymous with music. Chances are most fans can remember at least one song from every animated film that they've ever seen. I shouldn't have to mention that Disney "Frozen" has been at the top of the Billboard charts over the past 13 weeks . Disney films however do not have a great track record in the video game arena, especially not titles that were predominantly music-oriented. Music is a big part of gaming. The soundtracks for some of the biggest action...

Disney hopes to capture lighting in a bottle twice on the same game. JHM readers may remember that the site had a short look at the Disney Japan game Magic Castle Online . The free-to-play online game featured player controlled characters interacting with Disney icons and other gamers in a persistent world that was a sort of virtual Magic Kingdom. Players could enjoy mini-games and earn virtual currency to buy or win character costumes and other prizes. The game was popular among the visitors to...